Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
Part 9 As he looked across the table at the beautiful blonde Thomas felt a mixed rush of feelings. He did not know how to feel exactly. Having dinner with this stranger felt like being unfaithful and yet the woman who he’d promised his heart to had to be long since dead. As Lucy recollected tales of her life, Thomas couldn’t help but stare into the distance and allow his mind to wander to memories of Jane. There were happy and sad memories though he persevered to focus on the happiest and in his head he played out their first meeting.
Thomas had left his father’s ranch that morning for a small town not too far away though Thomas had never been there before. He had travelled there on some errand for his father, though later Thomas could never recall what this errand was. Though it was not usually in his nature to walk into strange saloons while there was important business to attend to, Thomas had on this occasion taken the liberty of his father’s money to take a rest and a drink in the local tavern. Walking through those swinging wooden doors he did not remotely consider that he would ever return to this bar let alone the fact that one day he would be shot here.
The saloon had a friendly crowd. The barman’s name was William though he had been graced with the biblical nickname goliath on the account of his rather large frame. Despite this unusual size however, William never came across as threatening or looked in any way to be a brute. His face was warm and joyful and lit up the bleakest of atmospheres. In their first chat Will and Thomas became instant friends though William was quite some years older.
They had been talking quite a while and Thomas had quite forgotten what he was there to do when a drunk approached the bar clutching an empty glass. The drunk could not walk straight or speak coherently and proceeded to let the glass drop from his hand and smash to pieces on the saloon floor before dropping to his knees in frustration of his situation. Helped to his feet by Thomas, the older gentleman could barely stand by himself. As a favour to the friendly barman Thomas agreed to see the local man home. The short journey was significantly extended by the drunk’s foolery.
By the time they reached the house Thomas was quite annoyed and eager to pass on the burden to a relative or spouse. The young woman who answered the door was very apologetic and grateful. The drunk’s daughter was very kind; a pretty brunette of around Thomas’ age, she invited Thomas in to enjoy her father’s dinner since it was clear he was in no state for it. Thomas was appreciative of the good meal since he had not eaten since sunrise but he also enjoyed the sweet maiden’s company. Her name he learned was Jane Sally Dossett.
Joined: Dec '09
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 42 (M)
Posts: 2087
we are away back in the past again this is a good story awood, i thought u had forgot about it. You even got slap my chops in the last one keep it up im sure a good few of us are reading this lol i am anyway PS are u joining in for the tourny? i was looking forward to another battle with u
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
Ok. If you were following this story I apologise for letting it go for so long but I really do want to finish it. I've got an idea of where it's going even if I don't know the end exactly and I want to make this one of the few things I do finish. How long it takes to take to get through and how many parts there are, however, kind of depends on the feedback and interest I get.
Anyway, since it's been a while I've got a 3 in 1 part to post which you may want to read over a few days. I'll try and post more regularly from now on though.
Part 10a ‘Tom? Tom! Thomas!’
Thomas’ mind was snapped back to the present. Lucy’s kind eyes studied him from across the table.
‘Sorry you looked like you were miles away. Your dinner would be getting cold.’ During his daydream the waiter had brought Thomas’ meal but Thomas had been so lost in his thoughts of the past, he had no idea how long it had been sitting there.
‘Sorry I must have been boring you. I’ve only been talking about myself. Tell me about yourself. What’s your story?’
‘Not much to tell’ answered Thomas. I’m just a local boy who was born more than a century ago who has somehow travelled years into the future, he added silently in his head but dared not say it out loud.
‘What do you do for a living?’ Lucy enquired.
‘I guess that I am currently between occupations’ answered Thomas truthfully. ‘I used to work on my fathers ranch but…’
‘So you’re a real cowboy then?’ interrupted Lucy. ‘This is too good to be true.’
Two years ago Lucy had been at a carnival when she noticed a tent advertising fortune readings. At the time she did not believe in fate. She found the whole idea of being able to predict the future completely ridiculous and she actively avoided reading horoscopes and paying heed to so called psychics but on this particular day she felt that she could do with a good laugh and so she found herself entering the tent.
She was instantly shocked on what she found inside. The man sitting behind the table was not at all what she had expected. For one thing he was dressed smartly in a very expensive looking suit, not as you would expect someone who travelled with a carnival to look. The old fortune-teller looked up at Lucy and waved her in. After welcoming her he took out his silk handkerchief and wiped over his crystal ball.
In the next few minutes the stranger recited accurate details about Lucy’s life he could not possibly know. Then he moved on to her future with a scarily detailed projection of the years to come.
Many of these predictions came true and consequently convinced Lucy in the existence of fate and unexplained forces of the universe. But one thing had not yet come true. The amazing psychic had told her confidently ‘in some years from now you will fall for a cowboy plucked right out of the old west, a gentleman lost in a world unrecognisable to him and if you should help him to find his way, you will find a bright future for both of you. The two of you will find true love with each other so perfect that even fate could not write it.’
Presently Lucy was beginning to understand the final words that the fortune-teller had told her. She didn’t know if this strange man was the love of her life but certainly there was something about him that she found most endearing; a quality in his character she’d never known in anyone and if there could never be such a thing as love at first sight then this feeling was possibly the closest thing to it.
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Part 10b ‘So for how many generations have your family been cowboys?’ enquired Lucy. ‘Have you had your ranch since the days of the old west?’
‘When exactly was the old west?’ Thomas asked.
‘Oh you know mid to late eighteen hundreds or there abouts.’
Thomas’ family had been living off the land and raising cattle since long before the period Lucy called the old west and so he simply nodded. He continued to nod or shake his head vaguely to the questions Lucy followed up with, not wanting to lie but avoiding stipulating any facts that would come across as impossible or fictitious. He was quite sure that if he told Lucy the story of what had happened to him the last few days she would judge him to be a liar or disturbed or insane. For although this was the future and Thomas did not know whether time-travel was feasible in this new world, he had imagined that he would have discovered this possibility by now if it was to be discovered and otherwise it was better to be safe and presume the obvious than risk being carted off to some mental hospital.
The questions become increasingly harder to answer without giving any explanation. Also the more Lucy asked, the more Thomas wondered himself as to what had become of his family and the ranch he should have inherited. Lucy saw the increasing confusion on his face and made a suggestion.
‘If you’d like to know more about your family history, maybe you should look it up on the internet.’ She offered.
‘What’s that? The Internet?’ asked Thomas taking Lucy by surprise. She did not know how anyone could not know what the Internet was but she explained to Thomas’ gratitude. She also ended up in explaining a great deal of other things about the modern world during the course of the night and Thomas, though he suspected that this was coming across as quite odd, was very thankful that he had someone to bring him up to speed with recent history.
Finally the night came to an end all too quickly. The pair left the restaurant and headed back towards their hotels still deep in conversation about various features of the twenty first century when they came to a point where their respective destinations were closer in different directions. As a matter of a fact, such a point had already passed though Lucy had chosen to ignore the usual shortcut in favour of spending extra time with her handsome companion. She could no longer put it off though and now there had come a time where a complex social ritual had to take place.
Lucy had previously set her own social rules, which dictated how a girl should behave on her first date. However, she was also proudly a modern woman, responsible for her own actions and capable of dealing with consequences and for the first time in her life she was prepared to go further with a strange man she’d just met than she had ever seriously considered before. Meanwhile, Thomas being from another time and also having particular ideas about respect for women, had not considered the eventuality of having sex that night, though he felt extremely guilty for wanting to kiss his beautiful date goodnight anywhere other than on the cheek. His thoughts returned briefly to Jane, imagining her in heaven, and wondering whether how she would feel now watching this scene play out.
Lucy had decided that she should stick to her formerly set rules but was not content in leaving the night with a simple kiss on the cheek. Suspecting that Thomas was too shy to instigate anything else, she initiated the kiss preparing herself for the worst and the best. She had not prepared herself enough for Thomas pulled away leaving Lucy feeling more embarrassed than she had ever felt. Thomas turned away briefly and looked back apologetically, his expression false to Lucy who now felt angry.
‘I’m sorry. I should have told you before. There’s someone else, someone else in my life. I…’
Lucy turned and walked away, a good night ruined.
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Part 10c This is one huge mess you’ve got yourself into Thomas thought. He looked down at his cards, then to the four cards on the table. The all club board was horrible and brought a lump to his throat. He hoped his face wasn’t giving anything away.
It was the day after the dinner date with Lucy that hadn’t ended so well. He’d come to a casino not far from his hotel and bought in to a reasonably low buy-in no-limit hold-em tournament. After his experience yesterday he’d come to the conclusion that bankroll management was not such a bad idea after all. There were enough people in the tournament though to make a fairly large prize pool and first place was particularly alluring. Thomas had been playing particularly strong and managed to be a successful large stack early on.
However he’d allowed others to catch up and was now facing a very difficult decision. They had been on the bubble for quite some time now and there were a few short-stacks hanging on by the skin of their teeth on the other table so the pressure on Thomas now was tremendous. He knew that he was partly to blame for this difficulty since he hadn’t raised pre-flop with his pocket queens. He’d been too scared by the big stack who’d merely called the under-the-gun raiser.
At the start of the hand Thomas had fifteen thousand in chips, six hundred of which had instantly been used to pay the big blind. A short stack with less than seven thousand had raised to eighteen hundred. The only other player to enter the pot was an aggressive player with about twenty eight thousand in chips who did so from the position of the button. Thomas had eventually just called, confident that he would let it go if there was a dangerous flop. The flop had been very dangerous bringing the suited queen, nine and three but Thomas forgetting his plan had bet out with three thousand. The small stack had folded but the big stack had called fairly quickly.
So now Thomas was supposed to lay this down. He had the possibility of a full house but if he checked, the big stack would surely not give him a free card. There was more than twelve thousand in the pot with antes and Thomas had little more than ten back. If he shoved Thomas reasoned that the other player would have to fold most clubs or risk ending the hand with half his stack. He was in Thomas’ mind more likely to call with an ace since the turn had brought the ace of clubs, in which case Thomas would have him beaten with his three of a kind. Even if the guy had the king of clubs, all was not lost; Thomas would have outs. The alternative move would be to check and then be forced to fold to any bet. This play needed extreme courage when Thomas was so close to making a profit. But he found it and after a moment he pushed all his chips. Then he waited.
Joined: Feb '08
Location: United Kingdom
Age: 35 (M)
Posts: 1886
Don't know if anyone's read everything so far yet but here's another part anyway. Really enjoying writing this so I hope that a lot of you will enjoy reading it.
Part 11 The other player was certainly taking his time and all the while Thomas’ heart was beating extremely hard although he strived not to show it. Truthfully it had to be a good thing that the other player was taking so long. It meant that he didn’t have the king or jack of clubs and in fact had a middle hand as Thomas had suspected. He was surely about to fold.
Longer and longer they waited. Other tables were now waiting on the outcome of this hand. Still Thomas persevered to give nothing away. The short stack who was about to enter the blinds with only five thousand left was clearly hoping that Thomas would be called and knocked out. It was advantageous to several people around the table who would be hoping for the call. Eventually the big stack made his move. He’d called.
Thomas felt sick but he knew it wasn’t over. He turned over his cards. His opponent smiled as he turned over his cards. Thomas couldn’t believe what the man had the audacity to call with. Pocket fours of all things but of course including that one horrible club. How on earth he made this sick call Thomas didn’t know. One of the witnesses laughed and another swore humorously. Thomas almost swore himself.
There were eleven cards out there to save him if they hadn’t already been folded. Any nine, any three, any ace or one of the two remaining queens. A one in four chance Thomas calculated, the chance of a higher club bringing a split pot not being considered. If only luck hadn’t deserted him.
The dealer dealt the final community card. Thomas saw it and knew instantly what it meant but it took a few moments longer to sink in. The three of hearts was a blessing to him but a dagger to many watching. They couldn’t help but show their disappointment.
The very next hand a player was knocked out on another table and from there play turned to chaos with a player exiting the tournament almost every hand. Thomas took great pleasure in finishing off the player who’d unbelievably called him with a four of clubs. The opponent’s stack had dwindled to eleven thousand and this coaxed the idiot into bluffing with ten high. Thomas reached the final table very comfortably and remained chip leader for the rest of the game.
As Thomas left the casino with an enormous grin and a substantial wad of cash in his pocket he was surprised to hear his name called. Turning to face the man who had said it he was pleased to see the friendly face. Having quite possibly ruined his friendship with Lucy, the man in question was arguably the closest thing he had to a friend in this time period. The poker player who had introduced Thomas to poker was accompanied by the last man Thomas had seen him with, a man who had called the friend Banks.
‘Tom.’ Banks said cheerfully. ‘I was hoping I’d run into you. This is my friend Shaun. Listen, I may have an opportunity for you. Shaun here is looking for a fifth man for his poker team. Someone pulled out last minute and he gets disqualified if he can’t find a replacement by tonight. See I would play but I have to fly out tomorrow morning. But I recommended you.’
‘Banks told me all about your interesting style of play’ added Shaun. ‘He says you’re a natural but from what I here a little rough round the edges. But that’s Ok. You won’t have to play very long. You see the rest of the team… well we’re brilliant if I do say so myself. Each player only has to play five minutes so all you have to do is hold the fort for a bit so’s we don’t get disqualified. Then watch us do all the hard work and then slap, bam, thank you mam, five thousand for your troubles.’
‘Five?’ questioned Banks.
‘Oh sorry. Did I say five? I meant fifteen.’
‘Providing you win’ interjected Banks.
‘Which we will’ Shaun said confidently. ‘What do you say? You in?’
this is a good story awood, i thought u had forgot about it. You even got slap my chops in the last one 
